1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of portable power cutting tools and to an apparatus which facilitates the ease and safety of handling the portable power cutting tool during the operation of the tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Portable power circular saws are widely used. Most conventional circular saws come with a flat plate attached to the bottom of the circular saw. When the circular saw is in use to cut a workpiece, the bottom plate of the circular saw comes in contact with the workpiece and slides on the workpiece as the circular saw is moving forward along the cutting direction.
The problem with the conventional flat plate device is that during the cutting operation, extra effort is required from the user of the circular saw to overcome the friction between the bottom plate attached to the circular saw and the work-piece. In addition, the standard attachment plates are heavy and have a tendency to slide in a side-to-side motion which often reduces the accuracy of the cut.
In addition, rotatory power cutting tools such as a rotary power saw can create a dangerous situation called kick-back. The heavy weight of the saw causes the saw blade to move out of the linear motion due to an unstable frictional binding of the flat attachment plate against the workpiece. As a result of this veering of the blade off a straight line motion, the blade may bind with the workpiece and subsequently kick back against the worker, thereby possibly causing serious injury to the worker.
The problem has been address by the present inventor in his Pat. No. 6,568,088 issued on May 27, 2003 for “Wheel Attachment For Portable Power Cutting Tools”. While that was a fine invention, it has now been learned by the present inventor that the invention as embodied in the previous patent has several drawbacks. First, the wheel attachment devices must be individually placed on the saw bracket which is time consuming and results in extra effort. In addition, the wheels are not replaceable and if one wheel is broken or is worn, it may affect the operation of the rotary power saw.
Therefore, there is a significant need for an improved device to assist in the safe operation of a rotary cutting tool and which overcomes the deficiencies in the present inventor's previous invention.